Sam Butcher, an artist whose nostalgic depictions of children with tear-shaped eyes inspired Precious Moments, a line of porcelain figurines that at its peak ranked among the most popular collectibles in the United States, died May 20 at his home in Carthage, Mo. He was 85.
His son Don Butcher confirmed his death but did not cite a cause.
Even for non-collectors, Precious Moments statuettes are immediately recognizable, a piece of Americana so ubiquitous that the Wall Street Journal once described them as “the Beanie Babies of porcelain.” From curio cabinets and gift-shop shelves, they gaze out with doe eyes that for many beholders have a way of tugging on the heart.
To detractors, the Precious Moments line is pure kitsch, although successful kitsch. In the 1990s, according to the Journal, its products generated retail sales exceeding $500 million.
But to those who appreciate Precious Moments for the sentimental rather than commercial value, a figurine is a treasured possession, a memento from a milestone in life or perhaps a reminder of the person who gifted it, something that will remain long after that person is gone.
Many items in the Precious Moments line, which includes greeting cards, Christmas tree ornaments, picture frames, coffee mugs, calendars, books, stuffed animals and other products, drew on Mr. Butcher’s Christian faith. They celebrate rites such as baptism and confirmation, depict angels and Jesus, and feature biblical verses.
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Others mark occasions such as graduations and weddings, the birth of a baby or the loss of a pet or loved one. One collectible shows two children at the gates of heaven with a basket labeled “old hankies,” to express the conviction that there are no tears in heaven.
Some of the most popular collectibles represent universal experiences such as love and friendship. The original Precious Moments figurine, released in 1978, is called “Love One Another” and depicts two children, a girl and a boy, sitting back-to-back on a tree stump in contentment.
Mr. Butcher’s story, as he told it, did little to foreshadow the financial success he would achieve. He was born Samuel John Butcher on Jan. 1, 1939, in Jackson, Mich., one of five children.
His family moved frequently between Michigan and California, where he grew up mainly in Redding, in the northern part of the state, with few material comforts.
His mother, whose family was Lebanese, was a homemaker. His father, of German heritage, owned a garage. All of Mr. Butcher’s brothers were mechanically inclined, his son said, while Mr. Butcher was drawn from a young age to art. He salvaged rolls of paper from a dump and used automotive paint to make his first artworks.
Mr. Butcher’s artistic talent was cultivated by his high school art teacher. He received a scholarship to attend an art college but left school to support his wife and new family, which grew to include seven children. He had once hoped to be a professor of fine arts but found himself, at various points, working as a janitor and as a cook in a pancake joint.
Mr. Butcher was raised in a nondenominational Christian church but recounted having a religious experience in his early adulthood that deepened his faith. The family moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he worked in the shipping department of a religious organization called the Child Evangelism Fellowship.
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He later moved to the art department and began working on a Saturday TV program produced by the organization, called “Treehouse Club,” on which he recounted stories from the Bible while illustrating them on the spot.
With a partner, he founded a company, Jonathan & David (named for the biblical figures) and began selling greeting cards with religious themes — and some of the first examples of his characters with teardrop eyes.
The business became Precious Moments. “I came up with ‘Precious,’ and he came up with ‘Moments,’” Mr. Butcher told the Kansas City Star in 1995, referring to his co-founder. “People would say, ‘Oh, aren’t those precious.’ They were moments in people’s lives we sort of set aside.”
Enesco, a maker of gifts and decor, licensed Mr. Butcher’s drawings and began selling figurines based on them in the late 1970s. In the succeeding decades, hundreds of figurines were released, prompting the creation of collector clubs whose membership numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
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Mr. Butcher’s marriage to Kathie Cushman ended in divorce. His son Philip died in 1990, and his son Timothy died in 2012. Survivors include two other sons; three daughters; three brothers; a sister; and more than 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Mr. Butcher lived for periods in the Philippines and suffered from bipolar disorder. The Joplin Globe quoted him as saying that the illness affected his life “terribly.”
Although he was most famous for his tiny figurines, his artwork found perhaps its grandest expression in a towering structure, the Precious Moments Chapel, that has drawn busloads of visitors since it opened in Carthage in 1989.
Inspired by a visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Mr. Butcher built a space spanning 9,000 square feet with 84 murals — which he hand-painted while lying on his back upon scaffolding — and 30 stained-glass windows rendered in the Precious Moments teardrop style. The Memphis Commercial Appeal, in a dispatch from the site, described him as the “Missouri Michelangelo.”
